Are you serious?
by CiaraSky
Summary: Everything starts when amateur musician Derek drives through the country and some dumb waiter at the drive-in restaurant manages to ruin Derek's evening. 60s AU!Sterek; no werewolves. II Always thankful for reviews, tips, constructive criticism etc.! (:
1. Chapter 1

His stomach growled. He _should have_ pulled over at the last drive-in restaurant, but it was too late now. Or to say it in a more positive way: the next restaurant will come. Derek stepped on the gas pedal, turning up the radio. It played "What'd I say" by Ray Charles and Derek started to nod to the beat, even whistling at some parts. It was a warm summer's night, the first one this year you could really label as a summer's night.

In the distance appeared a sign saying "Mel's Drive-In, 15 miles". Derek smiled a little, fantasizing about the burger and fries he would get himself. He wished he could have driven a bit faster but despite his fearless appearance, he had a lot of respect for the law. He kept an eye on his speed and also kept whistling to the song.

"Mel's Drive-In, 10 miles" ... 5 miles... and finally there was the exit. He blinked and left the highway and then parked his 1963 Chevrolet Impala in front of the restaurant. He pulled down his window and lighted a cigarette, looking around at the other cars. There were young couples on dates, lonely boys and girls like him but also and adult couple who smooched each other in a rather prurient way. Derek took another puff from his cigarette and looked away. He didn't want to watch happy couples being happy because he just broke up with his long-term girlfriend Suzy. They just grew apart in the last few months. He had to work a lot and she was at college and someday, he found himself fantasizing about other women, even other men. He had told her the truth and although she cried a lot, she said that she understood his reasons. She then gave him one last kiss and he drove off. That was three days ago.

And now he was here. It was the first time he thought about the break-up properly. He had been with Suzy about one and a half years but he seemed to have forgotten almost everything of it already. But he found himself not really caring about it.

He took another drag of his cigarette while looking around when his eyes met the caramel ones of one of the waiters who rolled towards his car on roller skates. The young man came to a halt next to Derek's window, leaned down and asked with a smile on his face: "What can I get you, sir?" while pulling out his scribbling block.

"A large portion of fries, a big cup of soda and the best burger your restaurant has to offer" the older man said and then took another puff.

"Alright, sir" the other man said while scribbling down the order. "I'll be back in 5 minutes." Then he rolled off.

'He better hurries up, I'm starving' Derek growled under his breath. Just then there was a new song on the radio that broke Derek's thoughts.

"... and the moon is the only light we'll see..." Derek sung as he flicked his fag-end away. He really love music. He wanted to become a musician when he was younger, but his parents made him go to college and get "a proper job", as they called it. He still played his guitar and played occasional gigs at various locations, mostly in pubs. Music was his escape from everything. But he had his full-time job which took most of his energy so his inspiration for songs has had decreased over the last months. However right now, shreds of lyrics came to his mind. Derek reached over to the back seats of his car to get his notebook which he used both as a songbook as well as a diary. Sometimes, both mixed up. Now he wrote down every line that came into his head, not noticing anything around him. Which was fatal, as just then the waiter came over with the tray in his hands, his glance focusing on his customer and not noticing the half landing just in front of the older man's car causing him to do the worst timed and most unfortunate tumble that could have happened. The tray flew out of his hands, the fries landed on the roof of the car, the burger crumbled to pieces and landed all over the older man's lap which wasn't even the worst because just then, the cup of soda spilled itself all over Derek and worse: his notebook.

Now soaking wet, the older man looked up at the waiter, grinding his jaw.

"Are you serious?" he asked with a low growl in his voice. The younger man looked fearful at the other one, stammering an apology and saying that he'd get him another meal.

"I hope so", growled Derek, looking at the blotches of ink that once were his lyrics.


	2. Chapter 2

Clutching his guitar, Derek waited backstage for his call. It was his first gig in about three months so he was rather nervous but he did a good job at hiding it. He took a sip of his soda, stretching out his legs, thinking about how the crowd outside would react to his performance. Due to that idiot of a waiter who spilled soda all over his song book he wasn't able to play as many songs of his own as he would have liked to so he had to cover some of his favourite songs. But nevertheless he was excited for this.

A young woman with a pretty, but kind of extravagant hairstyle stepped into the hallways behind the stage and waved at Derek.

"It's your turn, darling!" she called and vanished the moment after. Derek got up and headed in the same direction as her, turning right at the end of the hall was and again right, stepping out onto the stage. He sat down on the stool in the middle of the stage, hung his guitar strap around his shoulder and then adjusted the microphone.

"Good evening, Beacon Hills", he greeted the audience. There were only two dozen people, mostly adult men. "My name is Derek Hale and I will perform for you this evening. I hope you will enjoy my work."

Some of them clapped already, it seemed as if they came here for him, which he couldn't really believe, but you never know.

He started with a cover of a popular song, "(I can get no) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones, hoping it would attune he audience to his music. And he was right to think so because he received rather a lot of applause for his first song. He decided to play another rock song before playing one of his own, rather calm songs. He had prepared about ten songs to perform so he was flexible on when to play which. He also prepared three songs of his own and planned to play his favourite one as the last one.

Just as Derek was about to finish his first own song, a couple of young people entered the pub, sitting down at a table near the stage. It were three boys and two girls which all were deep in conversation and ordered themselves some drinks as soon as they had sat down.

Derek wished he could have such fun times with friends, too, but most of his friends from college lived somewhere else and he hadn't quite managed to find new ones yet, at least no one he grew really close to. So he had turned to music, again.

But he had to go on playing his songs.

His music really seemed to please the crowd as all of them applauded after every song. It made him smile. He closed his eyes as he started to sing his second to last song, which was a cover of "Sunny afternoon" by The Kinks, a song he really liked for no particular reason. Maybe just for the feeling it gave him, a feeling of summer, happiness and carelessness. He sung every line of the song with a smile on his lips and by the end of his, he felt more than happy. With a grin around the corners of his mouth, he finally said:  
"Thank you, thanks to all of you. Now I'm going to play the last song of the night. Again, it's one of my own. It is called "Baby, don't do that to me". Enjoy!"

"Wow, man!" someone called from behind Derek's back. He turned around to see the owner of the pub coming towards him with a wide grin on his face. "Would you mind playing here some time again?"

"Oh... uhm, yes, of course!" Derek closed the guitar case and shouldered it. He had never received such a good response to one of his former gigs. Shaking hands with the owner, they sealed a deal that Derek would play another gig at the pub in one and a half months.

It was only a quarter past eleven so Derek decided he could get himself a beer to relax after his performance so he sat down at the bar, ordering a pint. As he took the first sip of it, somebody sat down next to him.

"Hi", the other one said with a hint of fear in his voice. Derek turned his head around to look at the other man and almost choked on his beer. It was the waiter of the drive-in restaurant who ruined his song book.

"What are you doing here?" Derek asked with a frown on his forehead.

"I... uhm... came here with my friends." He pointed his thumb at them. The older man recognized that it were the ones he noticed coming into the pub during his performance. "You know... you're a really good singer." The younger man grinned rather sheepishly.

"So what?" Derek perked his eyebrows up.

"No offence, dude, I just wanted to tell you." The younger man raised his hands defensively. "There's no need to be so mean."

"Oh, you think so?" Derek said sarcastically, again raising his eyebrows. "But I think there is, actually. Remember what happened last week, hm?"

Recognition was reflected on his face.

"Oh sh... you're _that_ guy!" the younger man cried out, running his fingers over the back of his head. "Dude I really _am_ sorry! It was just... it was my first day at the restaurant."

"First of all: don't call me 'dude', my name's Derek. Second of all: your apology doesn't bring back my song book. But nevertheless," Derek took a deep breath to calm himself. "I'm glad you liked my performance."

This sudden change in Derek's mood seemed to confuse the younger man for he first seemed to be lost for words. After a while he said: "Alright, Derek... how about I buy you another drink and we just forget about that stupid thing that happened at the restaurant?" the younger man suggested with an anxious expression. "By the way, I'm Stiles."

"How about... 'No'? I'm already supplied" Derek said, pointing at his still half full beer. "And I would like to get home _without_ ending up in the ditch."

"As you wish," Stiles said, shaking his head. "I'm off. Bye, dude."

"Fine, bye!" Derek growled.

The younger man stood up and got back to his friends.

Derek returned to stare at his glass of beer.

"Oh dear, Derek, you're perfect at making friends", he thought to himself, instantly draining those thought away by emptying his beer.


End file.
